The Probably-Not-So-Big Harlequin Presents Read #10

#10 Waves of Fire by Anne Hampson

I will likely enjoy this project a lot more when it stops being the same three authors over and over again…

Best line: “What sort of man was this whom she had married? Dark and sinister, a foreigner in whose blood ran the pagan traits of his idol-worshipping forbears, he would crush and subjugate her until she had no will of her own, no personality, no life other than that of a slave, a possession to be used, indifferently laid aside, and used again as this man’s passions and desires dictated.”

Notes of interest: And…. we has sex! Bedroom door painted shut, blink and you’ll miss it, forced seduction aka “tender lovemaking.” Guess which one of these fashions went out of date first. And I think we’ve had the heroine have some kind of accident that renders her unconscious in every book so far.

As you can see from the quote above, this was an uncomfortable read. Shani is thinking stuff like that all the time. Her husband is actually a decent guy by HP standards — we can overlook a little blackmail and forced consummation, right? Because he loves her! — but that doesn’t make the book feel any less racist. I skim-finished, so I suppose it’s possible that Shani wakes up and thinks, holy shit, I can’t believe all those stereotypes I was thinking about Greeks…. but I’m skeptical.

There’s a lot of travelogue, which is a little more narratively interesting than usual because it’s about Cos and the characters are into it because they’re both in the medical field. Then it veers into the adventures of the locals, while Shani and Andreas do pretty much nothing. There’s quite a lot of doing nothing in the book overall, and I’d had enough.

 

 

The Probably-Not-So-Big Harlequin Presents Read #7

Dear Stranger by Anne Hampson

Well, it has to be said. That is one butt-ugly cover.

Best line: “Before her dreamy gaze rose the vision of a slim young giant, sinewed and dark, with classical Greek features etched in stone, with remarkable dull-green eys and a widow’s peak cutting a wedge into his low and noble brow.”

Notes of interest: Three out of three books so far in which the hero is a widowed father and the heroine fixes everything wrong in the lonely child’s life. I think we’re still sex free.

I DNF’d this one. The situation was exceptionally icky — the heroine was the hero’s adoptive sister and grew up with him — and it was dull as ditchwater on top of it. If you’re going to be gross, at least be interesting.